Beyond Class? The Radical Left and the Nation(al) Question

Abstract

The agenda of radical left parties has been historically dominated by the struggle between labour and capital. On the contrary, radical left parties’ positions concerning the nation state as an economic and political unit or on questions of national identity have often been awkward, contradictory, implicit, or all but absent. Until the 1950s it was understood that communists advocated proletarian internationalism, even if the Soviet Union was the story of ‘socialism in one country’. Since then, broad developments in the global economy, the end of the Cold War, regional integration processes, decentralising tendencies within states as well as growing secessionist pressures from the sub-national level have forced radical left parties to reconsider their strategies and ideas with regard to the national question (most noticeable in Scotland via radical left participation in such groups as the ‘Radical Independence Campaign’). Many differences over national/regional issues now divide the radical left party family, which may possibly correspond to diverse electoral incentives, political opportunity structures and the dynamics of parties’ own networks and alliances. The aim of the proposed panel will be to examine radical left party responses in comparative perspective. The panel will be open to papers on topics such as radical left parties and: • varieties of nationalism/internationalism • positions on regional/European integration • devolution/decentralisation and secession